WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY: Good afternoon and happy Wednesday, readers! If you’ve been as invested in Punch the Monkey as we have, we’ve got some good news for you – the baby Japanese macaque appears to have made a new friend, maybe even a girlfriend (ooh-la-la). 🥰 And if you don’t know what we’re talking about, we need you to Google Punch the Monkey immediately. 🐒
It’s bye-bye Jones Act – for 60 days – as the administration has issued a temporary waiver in an attempt to stanch soaring oil prices. 🛢️🚢
This week, the administration is getting creative with solutions aimed at bringing down prices. It also issued a general license allowing U.S. companies to buy oil directly from PdVSA, further easing Venezuelan sanctions. 🇻🇪💰
Plus, Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of Energy Chris Wright will be meeting with top oil executives this week amid the fallout of supply disruptions in the Middle East. We’ll be following this closely in the coming days and will provide updates as they come!
Welcome to Daily on Energy, written by Washington Examiner energy and environment writers Callie Patteson (@CalliePatteson) and Maydeen Merino (@MaydeenMerino). Email cpatteson@washingtonexaminer dot com or mmerino@washingtonexaminer dot com for tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email, and we’ll add you to our list.
TRUMP WAIVES JONES ACT: President Donald Trump issued a 60-day waiver of the Jones Act as part of the administration’s effort to curb high oil prices caused by the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
The Jones Act is a federal statute that requires all goods transported between U.S. ports to be moved by ships that are U.S. built, crewed, and flagged. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that the suspension of the law would allow for goods like oil, natural gas, fertilizer, and coal to “flow freely to U.S. ports.”
The suspension of the statute would allow for foreign ships to help move goods between U.S. ports, while potentially lowering shipping costs. It would help to move more oil from refineries in the Gulf Coast to the East Coast and other parts of the country.
Read more by Maydeen here.
LATEST ON PRICES: With no de-escalation in the Strait of Hormuz in sight, gains on international and domestic benchmarks of crude oil prices have extended yet another day.
Just before 3 p.m. EDT today, Brent Crude was up by 4.53%, selling at around $108.11 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate did not jump as much, but still increased by 1.04%, and was priced at $97.21 per barrel.
Gas prices also remain elevated, with the national average of gasoline hitting $3.842 per gallon. Analysts have warned that prices will continue to rise with refineries transitioning to more expensive summer blends and seasonal demand increasing.
Reuters is reporting that the administration plans to temporarily lift federal smog-reducing restrictions on summer-blend gasoline to allow for cheaper blends to come to market, potentially curbing the price hikes.
GasBuddy analyst Patrick De Haan estimates that a waiver for these restrictions could result in a $0.10-$0.20 decline in gas prices, but there are tradeoffs.
“Summer blends exist to reduce volatility and smog, so easing them may mean more pollution and potential performance/stability issues in peak heat,” he warned in a post to X.
Something to watch: Bloomberg is also reporting that Vice President J.D. Vance and other top administration officials, including Energy Secretary Chris Wright, will be meeting with oil executives tomorrow to address surging prices. Vance and Wright will be appearing before the American Petroleum Institute’s board.
PLUS…U.S. EASES SOME VENEZUELA SANCTIONS: The Trump administration is getting creative in its efforts to boost global oil supply in response to the Iran war, and is now turning to Venezuela.
The details: Earlier today, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a general license authorizing certain transactions involving Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A., more simply known as PdVSA. The license will allow the state-owned fossil fuel company to directly sell Venezuelan oil and gas to U.S. businesses that existed before Jan. 29, 2025, with certain stipulations.
Funds from the sales are not permitted to be sent directly to sanctioned individuals or entities, such as PdVSA, and must instead be sent to an account controlled by the U.S. government. Any transactions involving Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, and some entities in China will not be allowed.
Read more from Callie here.
SHIPS MOVING THROUGH THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ: Since the beginning of the war in Iran, there have been about 90 ships, including oil tankers, that have moved through the Strait of Hormuz, the Associated Press reported, according to maritime and trade data platforms.
Maritime data firm Lloyd’s List Intelligence said that most of the vessels that crossed through the strait are “dark” transits evading Western government sanctions, including those with ties to India and Pakistan.
Despite the effective closure of the strait, Iran has been able to export more than 16 million barrels since the war started, with China being its biggest buyer.
Strikes on Iranian gas: Israeli officials said they struck a natural gas processing facility in southwestern Iran, which they said was coordinated and approved by the Trump administration.
Several facilities in the South Pars gas field near Bushehr were targets, Axios reported. There were also warnings by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps that several energy facilities in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar have become targets.
WHAT DOES ENERGY INDEPENDENCE ACTUALLY MEAN: Soaring oil and gas prices have raised some questions about how the United States has achieved energy independence yet still is significantly affected by disruptions in supply halfway across the world.
Are we energy independent? Generally, energy independence means that a country produces enough energy to meet its own domestic needs. The U.S. does meet this criterion, as we produce more than we consume and export more than we import.
That doesn’t mean, however, the U.S. doesn’t need oil, gas, and other resources from abroad.
Our editor Joe Lawler teamed up with Callie to dive into this issue, breaking down U.S. energy production and consumption chart by chart. Here, you’ll be able to find detailed graphics showing how exports of oil and liquefied natural gas have soared over the last few decades, as well as the status of production of coal, renewables, and nuclear energy.
When asked for comment, the White House affirmed that the U.S. is “totally energy independent.”
“Unlike some of our allies, America is a net exporter — not a net importer — of oil and gas, ensuring families and businesses don’t have to worry about long lines at the gas pump or power blackouts,” spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told us, adding that, while short-term disruptions may increase oil prices “temporarily,” the country is not at risk of any supply shortages.
CUBA PUSHES BACK AGAINST TRUMP’S THREATS: Cuba’s President Miguel Díaz-Canel said the Trump administration has “almost daily” publicly threatened the island, warning that “any external aggressor will face unyielding resistance.”
“They intend to and announce plans to take over the country, its resources, its properties, and even the very economy they seek to suffocate in order to force us to surrender,” Díaz-Canel said in a social media post yesterday evening.
“This is the only way to explain the fierce economic war being waged as collective punishment against the entire people,” he added.
Cuba’s president’s comments come right after Trump said he would have the “honor” of taking the island. The Trump administration has placed ongoing pressure on the island for a regime change, blocking oil from entering the island and threatening tariffs on any country that helps to supply fuel.
The blockade of fuel has caused a dire energy crisis on the island. Cuba suffered a nationwide blackout on Monday but as of today there has been partial recovery of power.
INTERIOR HOLDS ‘EXCEPTIONALLY COMPETITIVE’ LEASE SALE FOR ALASKA DRILLING: The Trump administration has found some steam for its effort to expand oil and gas drilling in Alaska, as the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management held what it described as an “exceptionally competitive” lease sale in the state’s National Petroleum Reserve today.
BLM officials revealed that the sale received more than 400 bids on nearly 200 tracts. Some of the top bidders included ConocoPhillips, Repsol, Shell, and Frontier Oil and Gas.
“By those metrics alone, this sale ranks among the top sales ever in NPR-A,” said Kevin Pendergast, state director for the BLM in Alaska.
The agency began reading the bids roughly an hour ago and was expected to present the final tally and funds generated later this afternoon.
Be on the lookout for a story from Callie later today with all those new details.
Quick reminder: The NPR-A is a roughly 23-million-acre area in Alaska’s North Slope Borough that was first set aside by President Warren Harding in 1923 as an emergency oil supply for the U.S. Navy. In the 1970s, jurisdiction of the land was transferred to the Interior Department, opening it up to oil and gas development.
HOUSE DEMOCRATS INTRODUCE SWEEPING CLEAN ENERGY BILL: More than 100 House Democrats have unveiled a massive clean energy bill that would restore tax credits stripped from renewable and climate-friendly energy resources last year.
The details: Co-authored by Democratic Reps. Sean Casten of Illinois and Mike Levin of California, the Energy Bills Relief Act is primarily meant to lower rising energy costs by propping up renewable energy. To do so, the bill has seven major proposals:
- Restore clean energy tax credits and prevent presidents from imposing regulatory burdens on renewable resources
- Provide energy assistance to households and support energy efficiency programs
- Expedite the process of connecting new resources to the grid and increase the grid’s capacity
- Establish a tax credit for transmission infrastructure and improve planning between transmission regions
- Develop more clean energy on public lands and water
- Incentivize electric utilities to save consumers’ money
- Promote local collaboration
The legislation also is meant to ease natural gas prices by requiring the Department of Energy to assert whether exports of gas would raise domestic energy costs or contribute significantly to climate change. This would be required before the approval of any new LNG terminal – mimicking the pause on terminal approvals seen under the Biden administration.
ICYMI – TRUMP SET TO HOST FARMERS AND BIOFUEL PRODUCERS: The president plans to host farmers and biofuel producers at the White House next week for an agricultural event.
Reuters reported that the administration is working to finalize biofuel blending quotas for 2026 and 2027 by the end of the month. Last year, the administration proposed a rule that would increase blending mandates under the Renewable Fuel Standard.
The proposal would raise the amount of renewable fuel that must be blended into the nation’s fuel supply to 24.02 billion gallons in 2026 and 24.46 billion gallons in 2027.
RUNDOWN
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